Wedding Invitation Trends, Ideas & Info

Wedding Registries made fun & easy!

Recently, I met with Brandon Warner of SimpleRegistry.com. Like TGK, they are doing something rather unconventional in their market. I was intrigued and wanted to learn more.

SimpleRegistry aims to make creating registries fun, helping couples create a gift list that says, “this is who we are and these are the types of items, activities, and experiences that we love.” With SimpleRegistry, a couple can register for anything associated with a price. The goal: To help couples have a registry that shows off their personality instead of the latest inventory of the big box retail stores. SimpleRegistry makes a wedding registry reflective of each couple’s personality.

SimpleRegistry has several really cool features to make creating and maintaining a wedding registry fun and easy. With SimpleRegistry’s iPhone app, you can scan a barcode or take a picture of an item and immediately add it to your registry. When you find a “must have” item online, use SimpleRegistry’s browser button (similar to the PinIt Button) and add it quickly and easily your wedding registry!

One of my favorite benefits of SimpleRegistry is the ability to split or fund big ticket items through many gift givers. Let’s say you register for an iPad or a really pretty dining room table. SimpleRegistry allows multiple guests to contribute to the cost of these expensive gifts, splitting the cost into more accessible, manageable prices.

I give SimpleRegistry.com two big thumbs up for doing something different and innovative in the antiquated Gift Registry industry. What do you think of the idea of implementing a universal registry like SimpleRegistry into your wedding? Have you used or considered SimpleRegistry?

2 Responses to “Wedding Registries made fun & easy!”

My husband and I used Simple Registry for our June 2012 wedding in light of our impending move out of the country (just two months after the wedding!). SR was the perfect solution for us. It basically allowed us to ask for “cash” gifts towards items without having to be so blunt as to ask for money (always a tricky business). This unique kind of registry also allowed friends and family to contribute towards items in part or in full, which meant bigger ticket items could be gifted by multiple parties. All contributions would go towards a “nest egg” that we could cash out later on.

THE GOOD: For us, cash gifts through Simple Registry meant we’d have time to move and settle into our new home in Brazil unencumbered by belongings. For our guests it meant no mess, no frills, just showing up at our wedding with their beautiful selves. It took care of the delicate subject of asking for money by appeasing those who wanted to feel like they were purchasing “an actual gift.”

Simple Registry also let us create fun categories that allowed guests to contribute in other ways to our big day (stocking the bar, a couple’s massage and kayaking for our honeymoon, quirky board games, etc.).

Cashing out was a simple process and can be done more than once (I believe) without penalty. As a bonus, you can leave your registry up for up to a year after your wedding for any late gift-givers. Finally, Simple Registry keeps a running tally of gifts and who gave them (including their address & contact info) in a downloadable “Thank You List” available in Excel, PDF, and HTML formats.

THE BAD: Simple Registry is not a free service, so be prepared for fees. There is a service fee that you can waive up front with a pay-out (I think we paid around $35.00), and there are also fees for each gift transaction. You can initially choose to have transaction fees taken out of each gift amount OR have your guests pay the fee in addition to their gift amount. (With the latter option, SR reasons that guests are saving on shipping and gift wrap that aren’t needed, so the transaction fee is no biggie.)

FINAL WORD: Your guests will decide whether they want to buy from your Simple Registry page or simply hand you a check; they may even go their own route altogether. But we thought Simple Registry was well worth the money. Just be sure to state in your “Guest Message” section why you’re using SR in the first place, or you may end up with unwanted gifts!